In the poetry of the ancient Persian mystics Hafez and Rumi, the idea of “love-drunkness” comes up repeatedly. I understand it to mean both the yearning for the beloved and the ecstasy of spiritual union. Here, the violinist is the love-drunk wanderer, fixated on the beloved, lost in fantasy, agony, hallucinations, and in the end, ecstatic revelry.
Do not expect to hear the sounds of Persian classical music, which I have explored in my other works; but it is worth mentioning the structural influence of Persian poetry. The basic poetic unit is the couplet, which, in Farsi, is written on a single line, with a large space in the middle separating the two halves. My fantasy is likewise in two interrelated parts—a question and an answer—with the cadenza creating a space between them.